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Decay vs Die - What's the difference?

decay | die |

As a noun decay

is the process or result of being gradually decomposed.

As a verb decay

is to deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.

As a proper noun die is

god.

decay

English

(wikipedia decay)

Noun

  • The process or result of being gradually decomposed.
  • * 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X
  • I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable. It struck me as singularly odd, that among the universal decay , this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many thousand years.
  • A deterioration of condition.
  • Derived terms

    * bacterial decay * decayability * decayable * decayer * orbital decay * particle decay * radioactive decay

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
  • The pair loved to take pictures in the decaying hospital on forty-third street.
  • # (intransitive, electronics, of storage media or the data on them) To undergo , that is, gradual degradation.
  • # (intransitive, computing, of software) To undergo , that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment,so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete.
  • # (intransitive, physics, of a satellite's orbit) To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body).
  • 2009 , Francis Lyall, Paul B. Larsen, Space Law: A Treatise , page 120:
  • Damaged on lift-off, Skylab was left in orbit until its orbit decayed .
  • (of organic material) To rot, to go bad.
  • The cat's body decayed rapidly.
  • (intransitive, transitive, physics, chemistry, of an unstable atom) To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons.
  • * 2005 , Encyclopedia of Earth Science (edited by Timothy M. Kusky; ISBN 0-8160-4973-4), page 349:
  • Uranium decays to radium through a long series of steps with a cumulative half-life of 4.4 billion years.
  • (intransitive, transitive, physics, of a quantum system) To undergo , that is, to relax to a less excited state, usually by emitting a photon or phonon.
  • (aviation)
  • To cause to rot or deteriorate.
  • The extreme humidity decayed the wooden sculptures in the museum's collection in a matter of years.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Infirmity, that decays the wise.

    die

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), (m), ).J. P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'' (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999), page 150, s.v. "death"Vladimir Orel, ''A Handbook of Germanic Etymology (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2003).

    Verb

  • To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death.
  • #
  • #* 1839 , Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist , Penguin 1985, page 87:
  • "What did she die of, Work'us?" said Noah. "Of a broken heart, some of our old nurses told me," replied Oliver.
  • #* 2000 , Stephen King, On Writing , Pocket Books 2002, page 85:
  • In 1971 or 72, Mom's sister Carolyn Weimer died of breast cancer.
  • #
  • #* 1865 , British Medical Journal , 4 Mar 1865, page 213:
  • She lived several weeks; but afterwards she died from epilepsy, to which malady she had been previously subject.
  • #* 2007 , Frank Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, Sandworms of Dune , Tor 2007, page 191:
  • "Or all of them will die from the plague. Even if most of the candidates succumb. . ."
  • # :
  • #* 1961 , Joseph Heller, Catch-22 , Simon & Schuster 1999, page 232:
  • Englishmen are dying' for England, Americans are '''dying''' for America, Germans are '''dying''' for Germany, Russians are ' dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war.
  • #* 2003 , Tara Herivel & Paul Wright (editors), Prison Nation , Routledge 2003, page 187:
  • Less than three days later, Johnson lapsed into a coma in his jail cell and died for lack of insulin.
  • #
  • #* 1600 , William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing , Act III, Scene I:
  • Therefore let Benedicke like covered fire, / Consume away in sighes, waste inwardly: / It were a better death, to die' with mockes, / Which is as bad as ' die with tickling.
  • #* 1830 , Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon , Richards 1854, page 337:
  • And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year was very frequent in the land.
  • # (still current)
  • She died with dignity.
  • To stop living and undergo (a specified death).
  • He died a hero's death.
    They died a thousand deaths.
  • (figuratively) To yearn intensely.
  • * 1598 , (Shakespeare), (Much Ado About Nothing), Act III, Scene II:
  • Yes, and his ill conditions; and in despite of all, dies for him.
  • * 2004 Paul Joseph Draus, Consumed in the city: observing tuberculosis at century's end - Page 168
  • I could see that he was dying, dying' for a cigarette, '''dying''' for a fix maybe, ' dying for a little bit of freedom, but trapped in a hospital bed and a sick body.
  • (idiomatic) To be utterly cut off by family or friends, as if dead.
  • The day our sister eloped, she died to our mother.
  • (figuratively) To become spiritually dead; to lose hope.
  • He died a little inside each time she refused to speak to him.
  • (colloquial) To be mortified or shocked by a situation.
  • If anyone sees me wearing this ridiculous outfit, I'll die .
  • (intransitive, of a, machine) to stop working, to break down.
  • My car died in the middle of the freeway this morning.
  • (intransitive, of a, computer program) To abort, to terminate (as an error condition).
  • To perish; to cease to exist; to become lost or extinct.
  • * Spectator
  • letting the secret die within his own breast
  • * Tennyson
  • Great deeds cannot die .
  • To sink; to faint; to pine; to languish, with weakness, discouragement, love, etc.
  • * Bible, 1 Samuel xxv. 37
  • His heart died within, and he became as a stone.
  • To become indifferent; to cease to be subject.
  • to die to pleasure or to sin
  • (architecture) To disappear gradually in another surface, as where mouldings are lost in a sloped or curved face.
  • To become vapid, flat, or spiritless, as liquor.
  • (of a stand-up comedian or a joke) To fail to evoke laughter from the audience.
  • Then there was that time I died onstage in Montreal...
    Synonyms
    * (to stop living) bite the dust, buy the farm, check out, cross over, expire, succumb, give up the ghost, pass, pass away, pass on, be no more, cease to be, go to meet one's maker, be a stiff, push up the daisies, hop off the twig, kick the bucket, shuffle off this mortal coil, join the choir invisible * See also
    Derived terms
    * be dying for * die away * die down * diehard/die-hard/die hard * die off * die out * do-or-die * the good die young * to die for

    References

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m) (Modern (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (plural: dice) A regular polyhedron, usually a cube, with numbers or symbols on each side and used in games of chance.
  • * 1748 . David Hume. . In: Wikisource . Wikimedia: 2007. ยง 46.
  • If a die were marked with one figure or number of spots on four sides, and with another figure or number of spots on the two remaining sides, it would be more probable, that the former would turn up than the latter;
  • (plural: dies) The cubical part of a pedestal, a plinth.
  • (plural: dies) A device for cutting into a specified shape.
  • A device used to cut an external screw thread. (Internal screw threads are cut with a tap.)
  • (plural: dies) A mold for forming metal or plastic objects.
  • (plural: dies) An embossed device used in stamping coins and medals.
  • (electronics) (plural:'' dice ''or dies) An oblong chip fractured from a semiconductor wafer engineered to perform as an independent device or integrated circuit.
  • Any small cubical or square body.
  • * Watts
  • words pasted upon little flat tablets or dies
  • (obsolete) That which is, or might be, determined, by a throw of the die; hazard; chance.
  • * Spenser
  • Such is the die of war.
    Usage notes
    The game of dice is singular. Thus in "Dice is a game played with dice," the first occurrence is singular, the second occurrence is plural. Otherwise, using the plural (m) as a singular instead of (m) is considered incorrect by most authorities, but has come into widespread use.
    Derived terms
    * loaded dice * the die is cast * tool and die * * * * * * * *